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Danil32437582gbmk
Participant
September 21, 2023
Answered

Darker gray areas on model after AO baking

  • September 21, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1753 views

Hello everyone!

 

I got a question about darker gray areas on the model. Here's the situation:

 

I have a model in Maya and UVs for it. This is far from perfect, but I have no experience in modelling, so that's the mesh.

When I export it to Substance Painter and bake the AO map, I get some areas that are in darker gray color. 

I Googled the issue, and people usually tell to check faces and overlaps. 

I checked the UV map - there are no overlapping shells.

Display > Polygons > Face Normals and Vertex Normals show that there are no inverted components.

 

Could you help me please - are these gray areas critical? How can I fix it? 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Cyril Dellenbach

Hi @Danil32437582gbmk,

 

Thanks for the message.

 

From what I can see, these gray areas are, in fact, the AO doing its job. The Ambient Occlusion map is used to darken places where the light usually doesn't come through very well. Typically intersections between two objects or concave areas. This helps giving a more natural look to the 3D model.

 

With that being said, if you think there's an issue with the model, you can switch Painter's Display mode at the top right corner of the canvas.

 

 

This way, you'd be able to select the Base Color only to see if there's a problem, or the Ambient Occlusion to check whether these gray areas correspond to the AO or not.

 

Best regards,

 

1 reply

Cyril Dellenbach
Community Manager
Cyril DellenbachCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
September 25, 2023

Hi @Danil32437582gbmk,

 

Thanks for the message.

 

From what I can see, these gray areas are, in fact, the AO doing its job. The Ambient Occlusion map is used to darken places where the light usually doesn't come through very well. Typically intersections between two objects or concave areas. This helps giving a more natural look to the 3D model.

 

With that being said, if you think there's an issue with the model, you can switch Painter's Display mode at the top right corner of the canvas.

 

 

This way, you'd be able to select the Base Color only to see if there's a problem, or the Ambient Occlusion to check whether these gray areas correspond to the AO or not.

 

Best regards,

 

Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe
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Danil32437582gbmkAuthor
Participant
September 25, 2023

Hello, @Cyril Dellenbach! 

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

I guess you are right - the AO is doing find here. I had a problem with these areas before, so they were much darker. Then I managed to improve it a little bit and apply the metal material. That's how it looks right now: 

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    Danil32437582gbmkAuthor
    Participant
    September 25, 2023

    Typo: "the AO is doing fine here"

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